


Wouldn't It Be Nice?

by Ahelpfulpeach



Series: She-Ra Canon Universe Stories [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Flirting, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Intricate Rituals to Allow Themeselves To Touch Each Other, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, POV Adora (She-Ra), POV Alternating, POV Catra (She-Ra), Play Fighting, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, very briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24595561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahelpfulpeach/pseuds/Ahelpfulpeach
Summary: Pre-Canon pining that neither Catra nor Adora want to admit is pining to either each other or themselves. Despite the fact that they both kinda know.Look this is just these disasters disastering at each other for upwards of three thousand words.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Series: She-Ra Canon Universe Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763977
Comments: 42
Kudos: 322





	Wouldn't It Be Nice?

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone keeping track of the timeline for this series, this takes place a 1-2 months before the show starts

“Catra, watch it!” Lonnie jumped out of the way of the bot she’d sent flying, nearly crashing into Rogelio, who was busy with his own fight. Catra didn’t even have time to reply, already set upon by another. Apparently Adora and Kyle weren’t doing any better at the choke point.

Catra snarled as one of the massive legs clipped her, not enough to count as an ‘out’ but definitely enough to smart. As she stumbled, she heard Kyle shouting a warning to Adora, but couldn’t spare the energy to check on her. Not when adrenaline was the only thing keeping her eyes open and the bot was about to crush her.

And then, rather suddenly, the bot was no longer trying to crush her and was instead doing its best to stand up under the onslaught of over six feet of angry lizard. Rogelio growled, and even unable to fully understand him, Catra got the gist: ‘Get it together.’ Yeah, whatever, he’d been yawning too when the officer dragged their asses out of bed for this stupid drill.

As she searched for her next target, a buzzer sounded, and Catra dropped to a knee, panting, never more grateful to hear that godawful noise. Around her, she could hear the others picking themselves up, groaning, slowly shuffling to regroup. Looking up, she saw the blonde brigade returning, Adora doing most of the work to hold Kyle upright. He waved weakly. Catra just scoffed, pulling herself back to her feet.

“That could’ve gone a _lot_ better,” Lonnie grumbled, rubbing her shoulder.

“I’m inclined to agree.” Everyone stood at attention as the drillmaster approached; even Catra straightened up a bit.

“None of you succumbed to the wave, if only barely,” they narrowed their eyes at Kyle, still being supported, now between Adora and Rogelio, “But you failed to subdue the majority of the enemy forces. If you’re holding a choke point in the field, your job is to take out as much of the enemy force as you can, not just muddle your way through without dying. Given your previous performances, I expected better from you lot.”

“We’ll do better next time, sir,” Adora responded immediately, and _of course_ she sounded appropriately chastened, “The team did make some improvements though. Kyle was responsible for several assists and a hundred percent more takedowns of his own.” Catra bit down a laugh; she had to hand it to Adora, it was a pretty tricky way of saying Kyle got one ‘kill.’

“And Lonnie, Rogelio, and Catra were all able to hold their own separately while maintaining enough awareness to aid each other as needed.”

“Nevertheless, you lot need to do better in your next assessment. You’re dismissed.”

No one had much to say on their way back to the lockers, something Catra was grateful for. She was _way_ too tired to deal with talking. Everyone was in autopilot, slipping off the training gear, wiping sweat from their faces as best they could. Catra sat on the bench, testing her range of motion. Good, it seemed like it was just a bruise.

“We should grab breakfast before they shut things down ‘til lunch,” Lonnie broke the silence. Predictably, Kyle and Rogelio moved to her side nearly immediately, and just as predictably, Lonnie’s gaze skated right over Catra, landing just behind her.

“You coming, Adora?”

Catra didn’t look up but she could feel herself bristling.

“Nah,” Adora sounded exhausted, “You guys go ahead, I’m kinda beat.”

The other three waited just a moment, then, apparently convinced Adora wasn’t going to change her mind, they started out.

“If you say so. See ya later.”

“And thanks for the help!” Kyle called before the door swung shut.

Once she was sure they were out of earshot, Catra turned, scowling at Adora, “You should’ve just gone. Eat something, dumbass.”

Adora just shrugged, running a brush through her hair before pulling it back into that stupid poof and ponytail. Catra felt urge to tug it, just to be annoying, but she was just out of reach and that was too much effort.

“Like I said, I’m tired. Plus,” Adora finally turned to her, those stupidly blue eyes sparkling with mischief, “I’ve got something better than what they’re serving today.”

“Oh?” Catra raised an eyebrow, hoping she looked more cool than she felt. Her heart was still pounding from the exercise. That was all.

Adora moved closer, whispering conspiratorially, “Hid a stash of the gray bars last time we had ‘em,” she pulled back just a little, that stupid, excited grin lighting up her face, “We could grab them, have breakfast away from all the noise?”

“Oooh, what’d I do to earn that? Was I responsible for a hundred percent more takedowns too?”

Adora laughed, giving her a shove, “Consider it my apology for keeping us up so late,” then, a bit more contritely, “I didn’t think we’d have to be up so early.”

Catra rolled her eyes. Neither of them had moved to stop their whispered conversations, just allowing one topic to drift into the next long beyond when they should have gone to sleep. But if Adora was in an apologizing mood, who was she to deny her that?

Grabbing Adora’s wrist, Catra stood, “Come on, before someone makes us do something else.”

* * *

Adora couldn’t contain her laughter as she ran from the lockers, hot on Catra’s heels.

“Where are you _going_?”

“Changed my mind!” Catra shot back, grinning over her shoulder, “I think I’ll eat them all myself.”

“You don’t even know where I put them!” Adora reached out, stumbling as she failed to snag Catra’s tail. Jerk. Still, with Catra’s laughter echoing down the hall, Adora was beaming. Terrible morning, but things could improve. Adora managed to catch up at the next turn, grabbing Catra’s arm. The two of them struggled a moment, momentum still carrying them forward.

Carrying them into a person.

Everything froze for a moment. Even Shadow Weaver seemed startled, something Adora was sure she’d never seen before. In that moment, Adora and Catra disentangled themselves, adopting something closer to neutral expressions.

“Adora,” Shadow Weaver said, seeming to have recovered, “Good. I’d been needing to speak with you.”

“Wh-what about?” Adora straightened, willing herself to look presentable.

“Your team’s performance today,” Adora’s heart sank, “I was told it was… disappointing.”

“We- I could have done better,” she spoke quickly, “But everyone-”

“I’ve already heard the report,”Shadow Weaver interrupted. One of her hands moved, resting on Catra’s shoulder. Adora could hear the crackle of energy, and out of the corner of her eye, saw the poorly concealed terror on Catra’s face.

“We’re all working really hard! This was our first time in this scenario, we’ll do better next time,” Adora could only hope the desperate edge in her voice sounded like some appropriate amount of passion.

“You need to stay focused. You have been trained, _raised_ better than this. Don’t let _distractions_ ruin your potential.”

“I am! Everyone-” Adora swallowed, risking a glance at Catra. Despite her best attempt to seem in control, she could see the tension, every muscle in her body flexed, ears pinned back.

“I… I will. Stay focused, I mean. I’m sorry, I’ll do better.” Better to be a “people pleaser” than for Catra to get hurt. If that was what it took, fine. Adora would grovel.

Shadow Weaver stepped back, her hand resting at her side once more, “Good.”

Neither Adora nor Catra moved, not til Shadow Weaver was out of sight.

Catra’s shaky sigh brought Adora back to herself. Adora reached for her hand, only to be shoved back.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. What more could she say? An answering twitch from Catra’s tail was all the conversation they could have without bringing up questions they didn’t have answers for.

“We should eat,” Adora said, finally willing herself to break the silence. Catra’s lip curled, and for a moment Adora was worried she’d run off, only to be saved by a rumble from Catra’s stomach. Her ears flattened, tail lashing in annoyance.

“Fine,” she grumbled.

* * *

The two of them grabbed Adora’s stash with no more delays and headed up to the roof. Catra couldn’t bring herself to break the silence, and apparently neither could Adora. Despite the fresh air and change of scenery, everything still felt too tense. Adora pulled the bars from a little watertight bag, dividing them equally. Catra almost snorted, knowing the inevitable outcome, and started in on her share. As per usual, Adora charged through hers in record time; Catra didn’t even need to look up to know Adora was staring at her longingly. Adora didn’t have much of a poker face to begin with, and food seemed to be her biggest weakness.

“Not because I like you,” Catra muttered, tossing her one of the bars. She could feel tiniest flicker of a grin, unable to suppress it completely. It would give her away, and Adora wouldn’t comment. Like always. True to form, Adora just rolled her eyes, though she did seem happy about the extra food.

The silence that settled over them was more comfortable this time, tension gone for the time being. Once she finished her meal, Catra laid back, soaking in whatever warmth the day could offer through the smog. Far below, she could hear the sounds of people moving around, shouted orders, the buzz of electronics and creak of the metal structures. And, more importantly, the light thud of Adora flopping back nearby.

Maybe they could just stay like that.

* * *

Adora sat up after what felt like far too short of a rest, brow furrowed.

“Did you hear that?” she glanced at Catra, who flicked an ear irritably.

“I heard a lot of things, which thing are you suddenly so interested in?” Catra pushed herself up, scowling.

“I heard tanks,” Adora rose to her feet, moving to the edge of the roof to peer over. She felt Catra’s approach, standing just close enough for their arms to brush. Below, a platoon was gearing up to leave, tanks leading several rows of soldiers.

“Must be the ones headed to Elberon,” Adora murmured, “It’s supposed to be really far, some kind of secret base or something.” Catra nodded, watching the departing crowd in silence, something unreadable in her eyes. Adora turned her gaze back to the platoon, allowing herself to lean just a bit closer, their arms pressing instead of just brushing. Catra’s tail flicked across the backs of Adora’s legs in response. This was fine, this was nice, and this was way too dangerous to actually talk about.

Too dangerous to hold for long either, in daylight, where they could see each other’s faces. Adora shifted, then let her whole weight crash against Catra, sending her stumbling. Confusion melted into a feral grin when their eyes met, one Adora knew was mirrored on her own face. A grin that only grew bigger as Catra answered her bait with a harder shove.

Predictable. Adora turned, grabbing her arms in a grapple. Catra gripped her biceps, digging her claws in just a little too hard. Shit. Okay, new plan. She was stronger, if she could avoid getting scratched up, get into her space, get a good hold-

Unfortunately, a good hold was difficult to obtain when the target could slip loose so easily. With a twist, Catra extracted herself from the grapple, a smug smirk on her face, a challenge in her eyes.

“Gonna have to try harder than that.” Adora smirked. She could do that.

They threw themselves into the wrestling match in earnest. More or less, anyway. Adora knew she could have won a couple times, knew Catra was competent enough to have done the same. But right then the goal didn’t seem to be winning, just to keep the game going.

“You’re losing your touch,” Catra laughed, escaping from a just-too-loose hold.

“You wish.” Adora swept a foot into Catra’s leg, tripping her. Catra just rolled with the momentum, using it to send them both tumbling, pinning Adora’s hands as they hit the ground. Adora gasped, the wind knocked out of her. That was all.

“Careful, you’ll make me think you _like_ being pinned.” Catra’s voice was teasing, flirting with the edge of something dangerous.

And she’d failed to secure her legs.

Grunting, Adora planted her feet and thrust upward, jostling Catra enough to flip them. Still catching her breath, she just quirked an eyebrow, coughing out a laugh at Catra’s scowl. She let her full weight drop on Catra, hoping whatever size advantage she had would give her a chance to recuperate, come up with the next plan of attack.

Catra shoved against her dead weight somewhat ineffectually, a frustrated growl escaping.

“What’sa matter, thought you wanted to cuddle?” Adora hid her nerves under a smirk, one Catra quickly smothered with a hand in her face.

And feet in her gut.

Adora fumbled her landing, trying to turn her momentum into a backflip. Catra darted in remarkably quickly for someone who’d just been squished, keeping Adora off balance, unable to counter, to even really get both her feet under her.

And then, suddenly, there was nothing under her feet.

“Adora!”

The world tilted. Adora was aware of a rush of vertigo, of everything spinning, of Catra’s hands, one fisted in the front of her jacket, the other gripping her arm too tightly. She felt Catra heave her body out of the air, and then Adora was solidly on the roof, solidly in Catra’s space, Catra’s hands still on her, her own clinging to Catra’s shirt.

“I’m okay,” Adora gasped, the first thing she could think to do. Anything to soothe the terror in her eyes, the fur standing on end. Catra stared at her as if she didn’t quite believe her. They stood there for a moment, still clinging to one another. Yeah. Yeah okay, they were fine. Startled, but no worse for wear. As they started to separate, Catra’s grip on her arm tightened, drawing her closer for just a moment before _flinging_ her away from the edge of the roof.

“Of course you are,” Catra said, finally finding her voice, “You don’t get to leave me that easily, dummy.” Adora felt a little pang in her heart, Catra’s voice was shaky, breaking in places.

“Wouldn’t want to.” It was a little too sincere, she knew it before the words left her mouth. Catra’s eyes flicked to her, surprise and something tiny and hopeful in her expression. Adora didn’t know what to do. Her heart was pounding, this was all too much, and any attempt to backpedal felt too obvious. It was time to switch tactics then.

“We promised we’d look out for each other,” Adora continued, hoping just leaning into it would work, would bring them back around to safer waters, “It’d be kinda hard to do that if I was a splatter on the ground.”

To her relief, Catra snorted, “You’d find a way I’m sure, Miss Perfect.”

* * *

Catra turned away, settling herself on a pipe. Even though she was relatively sure even Adora couldn’t manage to trip off the building from where she’d tossed her, her heart felt ready to explode out of her chest. Fucking Adora.

Adora sighed, and a moment later Catra could feel her presence, close again. Not quite touching, but close enough to feel the heat of her body, hear her racing pulse. Catra swallowed a tease; it wasn’t the moment. Besides, Adora had just nearly fallen off a building. There were safe explanations.

“I can’t wait 'til we’re done with cadet training,” Adora said quietly, eyes trained on the last of the platoon disappearing at the horizon.

“Yeah. We can finally get out of here. See the world and all that. Blow shit up,” Catra grinned at Adora, but the look on her face was startling. She seemed… it didn’t matter. The expression was too soft and too dangerous. Even so, Catra wanted to know where this would go. So she waited.

“It’ll be good. We’d get stationed together, I’m sure, since we’ve been trained together. It makes sense,” Adora was in her head completely, eyes just a bit unfocused, “We’d be able to actually do something, get rid of the princesses, make things safer for everyone.”

Adora shifted her weight, her jacket brushing against Catra’s arm. Catra looked between their arms and Adora’s face. She wasn’t playing the game, wasn’t present enough to, still lost in whatever fantasy world she was creating.

“And… and we could still bunk together. Once we move up the ranks maybe even get a bigger bed so I don’t kick you by accident.” Catra knew, and knew _Adora_ knew she’d tread too far into the danger zone, she could see it in the flicker of panic behind those _stupidly_ blue eyes. But whatever the rational part of her brain was telling her wasn’t loud enough to bring her out of her wishful vision.

“I wouldn’t get enough sleep anyway since you snore,” Catra huffed quietly. A token effort to break Adora from her reverie. One she knew deep down wouldn’t work.

“Or maybe we could be special agents or something. Just us and a little squad. Or just us. Then we’d really get to travel,” Adora’s eyes shone, hell her whole face practically glowed with a wide, beaming smile. Catra felt herself staring, but didn’t bother to stop. Adora was too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice, it was safe to stare for just a moment.

“We could do infiltration, spy or something. Or. I don’t know,” Adora paused, like she was trying to wrangle her thoughts into something cohesive, “What do you think?”

* * *

When Adora turned to Catra, the look on her face startled her. Not only the softness of it, but the… the something else. One of those dangerous, nameless somethings that sent shivers down her spine.

“I think you’re an idiot,” Catra said with a tone to match her expression. A tone Adora really had no idea how to handle. A different tension had settled, one that left her mouth dry, her pulse racing.

Then something shifted, in the air, in Catra’s expression. Not completely, but there was a playfulness in the quirk of her brows that set Adora a bit more at ease.

“And,” Catra stood, placing herself right in Adora’s space, either unaware of the tension or willing to play with it, “I think you are gonna sleep on the end of the bunk tonight so _you_ get kicked.” Catra took off with a cackle, barreling right on through Adora, on down the building.

Adora stood there, watching her friend’s retreating form, feeling more off balance than when she’d almost fallen. A part of her was relieved, the tension had snapped when Catra took off, but it left a weird little flicker of something. Of _disappointment_ , she realized after a moment.

Shaking her head, Adora started the long climb down. That was another something she couldn’t name, couldn’t acknowledge. Even if she already had.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys  
> It’s the queer youth yearning song, I was contractually obligated to use it as inspiration for something.  
> User americapersonified made [this awesome little music video edit](https://americapersonified.tumblr.com/post/620409821434380288/inspired-by-ahelpfulpeach-and-their-fic-wouldnt) with the song! 
> 
> Also my first time using shifting POV! Honestly, not sure that I like it. Using it I mean, I rather liked this. But I felt like at this point the two of them are kinda at peak repression, and that for this to make any sense we needed a chance to hang out in both of their heads because they are too scared to acknowledge what's in their own heads, much less what they can read from each other.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy! If you're on there, I'm also very active on Tumblr @ahelpfulpeach.


End file.
